One of the acts from last year’s Erotic Awards (Picture: Christian Sinkinson)

The sexual needs of disabled people are thrust into the spotlight at the 2013 Erotic Awards.

For the past 25 years, pioneering sex campaigner Tuppy Owens has been the force behind the annual Erotic Awards and post-ceremony kink party Night Of The Senses, which raises funds for Outsiders, a charity that helps disabled people find sexual partners.

The awards, which take place tonight in Southwark, south London, throw sex and disability into the spotlight. It’s a taboo that has been explored by this year’s film The Sessions, in which a paralysed man loses his virginity to a ‘sexual surrogate’, and last month’s Channel 4 documentary Can Have Sex Will Have Sex, which details the sex lives of four disabled people, one of whom has sex with an escort hired by his mother.

They remind viewers that disabled people have the same basic human desire for sexual intimacy – something Owens has been telling us for decades.

The awards recognise sex-positive artists, campaigners, academics and sex educators. This year’s finalists include Sue Newsome, who developed a multi-sensory massage for a man paralysed from the waist down, and Tits And Sass, a group blog run by sex workers, including strippers, porn performers and prostitutes.

Once the winners have been presented with Golden Flying Penis trophies, it’s party time, and various tents, with names such as The Grope Box and The Petting Zoo, open.

This year, 69-year-old Owens will be demoted from head honcho to disability steward. She is retiring from the event to focus on her research and writing, and has passed the mantle to photographer Grace Gelder, 29, who runs Juicy Productions, and award-winning producer Lianne Coop, 36.

The pair aren’t obvious candidates – her successors don’t have her status or experience in organising such an event – but, as ever, there is a method to Owens’s madness: they are enthusiastic, bright and, most importantly, they are young.

‘When it started 25 years ago, all my friends came along to support me,’ says Owens. ‘They still come along, of course, but they are also nearly in their seventies. It’s time for a new generation of people to hear about the event, so we need young people to run it.’

Tonight Owens’s wish will come true: the crowd will be a youthful mix of Gelder and Coop’s friends and those who have benefited from the word-of-mouth campaign.

The number of disabled guests is still relatively low – Gelder estimates ten per cent of the crowd will be disabled – even though carers are free to attend and the venue has wheelchair accessibility.

‘Obviously we want more to join in,’ says Gelder, who met Owens while researching a documentary on sex and disability. ‘There needs to be a place where disabled people can come and enjoy themselves and their sexuality.’

Lianne Cooper, left, and Grace Gelder are the young guns who have taken over the Erotic Awards (Picture: supplied)

Gelder and Coop have had just four months to prepare tonight’s events and, although it’s been frantic, they have enjoyed incorporating their own touches.

Tonight’s theme is The Zoo – a homage to Owens’s former career as a zoologist – and they have added an Animal Observatory for life-drawing enthusiasts, a Tantric Tiger Temple for tantric massage and a Monkey Kingdom for all those ‘kings of the swingers’, says Gelder. The overall emphasis, they say, is artistic and theatrical.

Next week, they are going on holiday and will start organising next year’s event as soon as they return. For 2014, they want a sponsor (they have contributed their own money this year) and a famous name to help promote it.

‘Someone such as Sam Roddick [founder of erotic emporium Coco de Mer] would change everything for us,’ says Gelder.

They may use their film backgrounds to make a short film and hope to deliver a sensual feast where food will be served on naked models. And among all this planning and promotion, they will be pushing the important message – that disabled people have sexual needs too.

The Erotic Awards, once known as the Erotic Oscars, will take place tonight in Pulse nightclub in Southwark and will honour the stars of the erotic world: the individuals who celebrate sexual creativity and diversity.

There are 17 award categories covering academia, fashion, blogging, photography and – new this year – sex therapist and best erotic tabloid scandal.

The show will be compered by actor Mat Fraser, who usually starts the show by saying: ‘We welcome everyone – men, women, those in between and those who have yet to decide.’

Once the winners have received their trophies, which are hand-carved in Indonesia, the finalists and a selection of past winners will perform, including naked ballet dancer Amanda Prince-Lubawy, stripper Dinah Might and daredevil Johnny Strange.

At 1am, the post-ceremony Night Of The Senses carnival of craziness begins.

A performer from the 2012 Erotic Awards (Picture: Christian Sinkinson)

And the hottest of hot favourites to win

Benedict Garrett was fired from teaching for appearing in a porn film. However, he earned his right to carry on in the classroom after going to court. He now speaks regularly about porn and sex education at debates and is a stripper with The Dreamboys.

Cindy Gallop is an Oxford graduate behind Make Love Not Porn, an erotic website set up as an antidote to hardcore porn. Her website features couples and individuals having intimate sex.

Artist Sarah Maple, tipped to be the new Tracy Emin, creates humorous pieces about the female body.